BUILDING BALANCE

Creating a Chair to Improve Labour Relations

We all benefit tremendously — employers and employees alike, here in Canada and around the world — from a society that understands and implements best practices in labour relations and human rights, and when working people have a say in their working conditions. Countries with stronger policies around labour and social dialogue, and with more durable systems of collective bargaining and employee representation, for example, have better adapted to challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition, collective bargaining delivers substantial benefits to employees whose working conditions are non-standard or precarious, a significant proportion of whom are Black, Indigenous, people of colour, new immigrants or younger people. It also has positive impacts on income inequality, voting participation and other measures of civic engagement. There is an urgent need to drive teaching and research in new areas of labour relations and human rights to continue meeting the needs of an evolving world.

Through the United Steelworkers/Leo Gerard Chair in Collective Bargaining and Worker Representation at the University of Toronto, we will develop a better understanding of policies and legislation related to work and employment in Canada and around the world.

United Steelworkers/Leo Gerard Chair

The CIRHR has established the United Steelworkers/Leo Gerard Chair in Collective Bargaining and Worker Representation to continue its impact in the study and teaching of labour relations and human rights. Launched with an initial cornerstone gift from the United Steelworkers (USW), this chair will address the most pressing challenges the workforce is facing today by:

• solidifying teaching and research in the traditional subjects of labour relations and collective bargaining;
   
• supporting teaching and research in emerging areas of collective representation, including sectoral bargaining systems, employee involvement schemes, and the comparative study of collective bargaining and employee representation systems on a global basis; and
   
• funding a new tenure-track faculty position to assist in the advancement of teaching and research around these collective bargaining and employee representation issues

The United Steelworkers/Leo Gerard Chair in Collective Bargaining and Worker Representation recognizes the role of the United Steelworkers in its representation of a broad and diverse membership across North America and Leo Gerard’s extraordinary work as its international president from 2001 to 2019. Leo Gerard was recently appointed Companion of the Order of Canada, this country's highest civilian honour, for his contributions to the labour movement, in Canada and internationally.

How You Can Support this Initiative

We have an ambitious goal of raising $3.5 million to establish the Chair and facilitate its objective of supporting advanced teaching and research in labour relations and human rights.

With your support, the United Steelworkers/Leo Gerard Chair in Collective Bargaining and Worker Representation will drive research toward a better understanding of policies and legislation related to leverage and voice for working people and how their collective representation can improve equity, productivity and efficiency; it will support teaching in new areas of collective representation; and tomorrow’s labour relations and human resources professionals will be able to build and strengthen models of employee representation that are effective from all sides of the employment relationship.

Equipped with newly generated expert knowledge in driving policies and best practices, employers and employees can build stronger relationships to withstand and overcome challenges, from technology change to economic dislocations such as those caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic.

We invite you to join us in making the United Steelworkers/Leo Gerard Chair in Collective Bargaining and Worker Representation a reality. If you would like to lend your support to our initative, click the button below. For more information, please contact CIRHR Director, Rafael Gomez at director.cirhr@utoronto.ca.

We would like to extend a special thank you to our generous indivdual, local union, and corporate donors: